In the field of oil and gas exploration and production, hydrocarbon wells may be drilled to recover hydrocarbons from subterranean formations. Such wells may be constructed by drilling a borehole into a formation using a rotary drill bit attached to a remote end of a drill string. A fluid that may be referred to as “drilling mud” may be circulated down through the drill string to lubricate the drill bit and carry drill cuttings out of the wellbore as the fluid returns to the surface at the well site. The particular methods and equipment used to construct a particular well may vary extensively based on the environment and formation in which the well is being drilled. Many different types of equipment and systems may be used in the construction of wells, including, but not limited to, a rotating system for turning the drill bit, a hoisting system for lifting the drill string, a circulating system for managing the drilling fluid, pressure management equipment for controlling wellbore pressure, a directional drilling and steering system for non-vertical drilling, and several downhole tools.
Some oil and gas wells may not be drilled vertically straight but rather at a deviated angle from vertical and in a specified direction. Specific drilling methods may be deployed to deviate these wells to direct them in the desired well path. Such methods, known collectively as “directional drilling,” may require drilling personnel to orient downhole equipment to drill the well in the desired well path. The overall directional drilling operation may be directed by a specific person known as the “directional driller.”
“Sliding” may describe drilling with a mud motor rotating the bit downhole without rotating the drill string from the surface. This operation may be conducted when a bottom hole assembly has been fitted with a bent sub or a bent housing mud motor, or both, for directional drilling. Sliding may be a predominant method to build and control or correct hole angle in modern and conventional directional drilling operations.
A precise drill bit direction may be essential to drilling a borehole successfully, particularly in controlled steering and directional drilling. Achieving a precise drill bit direction may be obtained either by steering while sliding, which orients the bent segment of a downhole mud motor from the surface, or by steering while rotating, which utilizes a downhole rotary steerable system (RSS).
A drill bit direction may be determined by a toolface orientation in three-dimensional space. Downhole toolface orientation is a complex function of several drilling variables including, but not limited to, weight on bit (WOB), torque on bit (TOB), drill bit torsional speed (rotations per minute or RPM), mud motor differential pressure, rate of penetration (ROP), drill bit type, formation lithology, and the angular position of a rotating system. The overall efficiency of directional drilling, especially in the slide drilling, may depend on analyzing all of these variables and accordingly applying torque or angle corrections to the drill bit.
Current directional drilling practices may require the directional driller to verbally translate desired downhole equipment orientation to the rig's “driller,” a person who may control the machinery on a rig floor that is used to drill the well. The driller then may apply and maintain the required settings of drilling machinery located on the drilling rig floor. These directional drilling methods may result in human error that consequentially may increase rig non-productive time, lower drilling efficiency, and drive up overall directional drilling cost.